Machinery fob



UNITED sTEfrEs rArEEr CHAS. A. READ AND THOS. COTTER, OF NEW HARTFORD,NEW YORK.'

MACHINERY FOR FULLING CLOTH.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that we, CHARLES A. READ andTHOMAS COTTER, of Vashington Mills, town of New Hartford, county ofOneida, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Machinefor Fulling Fabrics; and do hereby declare that the following is a fulland exact description thereof and of its construction and operation,reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification.

Drawing Figure l, represents a side view of the fulling mill box orframe, containing the toothed fulling cylinders, the feeding andcleaning rollers and the guides. It also represents, in outline thechamber below the cylinders for the fabric to be fulledthis is markedthe receiver. This figure also represents the position and adjustment ofthe intermediate pulleys on the outside of the mill which regulate thespeed of the feeding and cleaning rollers within, and also representsthe friction and ratchet wheel which regulates the resistance of one ofthe fulling cylinders, as will more fully appear hereinafter.

Drawing Fig. 2, represents a front view of the fulling mill-a portion ofthe coverings of the frame is removed to show the feeding rollers C andD. These rollers feed the cloth through trumpet or bell shaped guides GG Gr between the fulling cylinders. Then the mill is in operation thefeeding rollers C and D lie close together. n this figure, roller C islifted up so as to snow the the bell-shaped guides behind them, throughwhich the fabric is passed to the fulling cylinders. The guides are soformed as to deliver the fabric on to the fulling cylinders in as t-hicka shape as possible, so that the fulling cylinders will have morethickness of fabric to beat upon. Of the two feeding rollers, one theupper is smooth; the under one is fluted and drives the upper roller.

Drawing Fig. 3, represents a front and side view of the fulling millwith its covering oft', with the feeding and cleaning rollers andtrumpet shaped guides also removed, showing nothing inside but the twofulling cylinders A and B. These two cylinders are those that full thefabric. The upper cylinder A is called the resisting cylinder; the lowercylinder B is called the driving and striking cylinder. These may bemade of any suitable material and sizes; both are toothed, and the teethare so constructed that 7,673, dated September 24, 1850.

the fabric is fulled by the blows given bv the teeth of the drivingcylinder B, upon the fabric against the teeth of the resisting cylinderil and also by pressure bet-.veen the teeth,'as will more plainly appearin drawing Fig. 4, to which we shall next refer. The side view of themills represented in this Fig. is that opposite the side represented inFig. 1 and shows the driving pulleys C and D.

Drawing Fig. represents a transverse section of the fulling cylinders Aand B, and also a transverse section of the feeding rollers C and D, andalso a transverse section of the cleaning rollers E and F and a sideview of one of the bell-shaped guides G which deliverA the fabric on tothe fulling cylinders A and B in rolls. The objects of the feedingrollers C and D have already been mentioned. The cleaning rollers E andF receive the fabric after it has passed from between the fullingcylinders and prevent it from clogging and winding up over resistingcylinder A or down around cylinder B. These two rollers are thereforetermed the cleaning rollers.

The nature of our invention consists in fulling fabrics by means oftoothed cylinders operated by power machinery.

The cylinders being so adjusted that one of them shall be the drivingand striking cylinder and the other the resisting cylinder. The teeth ofthe striking or driving cylinder making a heavy blow upon the teeth ofthe resisting cylinder, and necessarily upon any fabric which may passbetween ts. i the power of resistance of the resisting cylinder beingregulated by a friction pulley, lever' and ratchet wheel attached to theend of the resisting cylinder. In front of these cylinders are p d twofeeding rollers, and between the i ding rollers and the cylinders areplaced 'me or more guides. The feeding rollers are so adjusted that wnenone end of the fabric is placed between them they draw in the residue ofthe fabric and feed it through the guides between the fulling cylinders.And this by connecting the ends of the fabric, may be done any number ofdesired times without any further labor or attention. The speed of thefeeding rollers is made greater than that of the fulling cvlinders, sothat the fabric is fed between the cylinders so rapidly as to preventall strain upon it. Behind the fulling cylinders are placed 4two otherrollers called the cleaning rollers, whose oflice it is to prevent thefabric from clogging or adhering to the cylinders after it has passedfrom between them.

By means of this invention a large amountI of power, stock, labor andattention is saved, and the fabric is fulled more evenly and twice asrapidly as by any known process.

To enable others lskilled in the art, to make and use our invention, wewill now proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The fulling cylinders A and B shown in Figs. 3 and 4, and also thefeeding rollers C and D shown in Figs. 2 and 4 and also the cleaningrollers shown in Fig. 4, may be made of wood, iron, brass or any otherknown suitable material, and of any suitable length and diameter,according to the amount ofpower and of fabric desired to be fulled atany one given time in one mill. The feeding and cleaning rollers beingmade of smaller diameter than the fulling cylinders, for the sake ofeconomy and speed.

One of the feeding rollers being luted and operating as the drivingroller for t-he up- Jer which is round and smooth. The teeth of thefulling cylinders are made large and strong and are so constructed thatthe under or inner surfacey of each tooth is flat, so that the flatsurface of the teeth of the driving and striking cylinder B will strikeupon the flat surface of the teeth of the resisting cylinder A, so thatthe fabric between these surfaces is fulled by heavy blows and whenbetween other portions of the teeth it is pressed and jammed firmlytogether, thus being fulled by a combination of blows and pressure.

The guides which receive the fabric from the feeding rollers, andconduct it between the fulling cylinders, have wide openings next thefeeding rollers, and diminish in size as they approach 'the fullingcylinders, being shaped much like the mouth of a trumpet. The guide iscontracted toward the fulling cylinders so as to deliver the fabricbetween them in rolls. The number of guides depends upon the number ofpieces of fabric to be fulled at the same time in the mill and may bemade of wood or metal or any other suitable material and size.

vThe frame and other parts of the fulling mill may also be made of anyknown suitable material and size according to the strength and quant-ityof fabric desired to be fulled at any one time.

In drawing Fig. l that part of the frame indicated by the letter P isdesigned to represent iron, and the residue wood. The frame P isconstructed so as to form the boxes for the journals of the shafts ofcylinders A and B and also of the feeding rollers C and D and of thecleaning rollers E and F and also of the shafts 0f the loose pulleys G GG and G G. The frame P also supports the frame Q, Q of the ratchet wheelJ and the stationary end of the arm M. The shafts of each of the fullingcylinders A and B and also of the feeding and cleaning rollers C andD, Eand F are extended through this frame on the side of the fulling millrepresented in Fig. l and upon each of the extended shafts is placed oneor more pulleys. The extended shaft of the driving cylinder B isrepresented in drawing Fig. l by let-ter B and upon that shaft is placedand firmly fastened the connected pulley H H.' This is but one pulleywith a dividing collar running midway between the outer edges of theouter circumference of the pulley, for the purpose of using two beltswithout interference. From the connected pulley H H passes a belt markedfigure 1 or to one of the connected pulleys marked G G: These pulleysare constructed like pulley H H, being in fact but one pulley with adividing collar. This connected pulley G G runs loose on the permanentshaft S. This shaft is fastened firmly to the frame P of the fullingmill. Another belt marked figure 2 passes also from the connected pulleyH H on to the connected pulley G G G which is constructed in the samemanner with pulley G G, with two dividing collars instead of one. Italso runs loose on the shaft S which are merely intermediate pulleysbetween the connected pulley H H and the pulleys T U and V and aredesigned for the purpose of giving suflicient length and bearing of beltbetween the pulleys H H and the pulleys T U and V 1n as convenient andsmall a space as possible; and made of any suitable size and placed atany suitable distance from pulley H H. Now motion having been given bybelt marked figure l from the pulleys H H to the connected pulley G Gmotion is thereby given by means of belt marked figure 8 to the pulleymarked letter T. This pulley is fastened to the shaft D which is theextended shaft of feeding roller D, which roller D is seen in drawingNos. 2 and 4; pulley T may be made of any size suitable to give therequisite speed to feeding roller D; it being necessary that the speedof this roller should be greater than that of the cylinders B and A.Motion having been conveyed from the pulleys H H by means of belt markedfigure 2 2 to the connected pulley G G G, motion is thereby, by means ofbelt marked figure 4 4 conveyed to pulley U and by means of belt markedfigure 5 5 to pulley V. Now pulley U is fastened to the shaft E which isthe extended shaft of the upper cleaning roller E, of which a transversesection is shown in drawing No. 4 marked E; and pulley V is fastened toshaft F which is the extended shaft of the lower cleaning roller F ofwhich a transverse section is shown in drawing No. 4, marked letter F.The pulleys U and V are made of any suitable size to give the requisitespeed to the cleaning rollers E and F. Thus by means of this combinationand adjustment of pulleys, the entire motion of all the feeding andcleaning rollers is given by the driving cylinder B and at the same timean entirely different speed. As yet however it has not appeared how theupper feeding roller C gets its motion; this is obtained from roller Dwhich is fluted and is in fact its driving roller.

W'e will now describe the operation and construction of the feedingroller C. This roller is not fiuted and is represented in the drawingsNos. 2 and 4 by letter C. It is so arranged as to be capable of beinglet down upon roller D which is placed immediately below it, or of beinglifted up from it. To effect this, its journal represented by letter Cin drawing'No. l is placed in the movable arm marked let-ter M. One endof this arm can be moved up or down in the slotl in the frame marked X,while the other end of the arm is fastened to the frame by a stud markedY; a similar' arrangement is used at the opposite end of this roller asis represented in the drawing Fig. 3 by letters M Y X. It remains todescribe the adjustment and construction of the resisting cylinder Awith the friction wheel L and lever, ratchet wheel and axle and frame IJ K and Q. The resisting toothed falling cylinder A is adjusted to liftup from or let down upon the driving fulling cylinder B by anarrangement similar to that which we'have just described respectingroller C. This is best seen in drawing Fig. 3 which represents a view ofthe sides of the mill opposite that represented in drawing Fig. l and wewill now refer to drawing Fig. 3.

The bearing or journal A of the cylinder A is supported by the movablearm N, one end of which is stationary and held to the frame of the millby the stud T; the other end of the arm is movable and when down restsupon a shoulder made on the frame P of the mill; which shoulder isrepresented in Fig. 3 by the letter C. The movable end of the arm iscapable of being moved up any desired distance, so that after each blowst-ruck upon the teeth of the resisting cylinder A by the teeth of thedriving cylinder B, the resisting cylinder A moves or yieldssufficiently to allow the fabric to pass on. To regulate the amount ofthe resistance of this cylinder A to the blows of the driving cylinder Ba friction wheel is attached to the extended shaft of the cylinder A onthat side of the mill opposite the side represented in drawing Fig. 3;and as this side and 'arrangement is only represented in drawing Fig. lwe will now refer to that drawing. On the extended shaft marked A of thecylinder A is fastened the pulley L. Around this pulley is wound a beltthe ends of which are firmly fastened to the axle marked I of the wheelmarked J. This wheel is notched on one side so as to form a ratchet.This wheel and its axle are supported by a frame marked Q, which isattached to the movable arm marked N. On the axle I is inserted thelever marked K. This lever is provided with a pawl or hand which passesin between the teeth of wheel J holding the lever firmly in any positionin which it may be placed. Now by pressing down the lever K it turns theaxle I which winds around it t-he ends of the belt which passes aroundthe rim of the pulley L and causes the belt to draw tightly upon thepulley rendering it, if desired, immovable; and this pulley beingfastened firmly to the shaft of the resisting cylinder A it increasesits powers of resistance at the will of the operator. If the resistanceis too great, it is lessened immediately by lifting the lever and thusloosening the friction belt and permitting the pulley L and cylinder Ato run freely.

Motion is given to the driving and striking cylinder B by power and beltapplied to the pulley D which is firmly attached to the shaft of thatcylinder and through that cylinder motion is conveyed to all the otherrunning part of the machine, as is shown in drawing Fig. 3.

l/Ve do not claim as our invention the particular shape of the frame ofthe fulling mill; but

What we do claim as our invention and desire to have secured to the saidCHARLES A. READ by Letters Patent, is-

The above described mode of fulling fabrics by means of toothedcylinders by power machinery, the fabric being fed between the fullingtoothed cylinders by means of feeding rollers through guides withsufficient rapidity to prevent all strain upon the fabric, and at thesame time to supply the fulling cylinders which receive the fabric, fullit and then pass it out between two cleaning rollers, which receive itfrom the fulling cylinders, prepared for other processes, the movementsof the several parts of the machine being produced by a combination andadjustment of mechanism, similar to that herein described andrepresented, or any other, which may be substantially the same, and bywhich analogous results may be produced.

CHARLES A. READ. THOMAS COTTER.

Witnesses:

JOHN F. SEYMOUR, J. WYMAN JONES.

